Over the years, advancements in material technology have lead to increased sophistication in the manufacturing and performance of hockey sticks. Traditionally, hockey sticks were manufactured primarily of wood with a fiberglass covering on the blade portion. The wood stick comprised a solid shaft either machined of a single piece of wood or by sandwiching multiple layers of wood together. These solid shafts were typically very durable but suffered somewhat from increased weight as well as limited flexibility.
Through the use of advanced material technologies, modern hockey sticks are often manufactured of a wide variety of materials. In addition to the aforementioned wood and fiberglass, newer materials including lightweight metals, such as aluminum, and high performance polymers and composite materials such as, for example Kevlar®, graphite, ABS, carbon fiber and ceramics are being used either individually or in combination. Using these new materials, stick suppliers such as Hillerich & Bradsby, CCM, Christian Brothers, Cooper, Mission, Hespeller and Bauer/Nike have been able to alter hockey stick performance to alter and tune stick characteristics such as weight and stick flex.
One way in which these new materials have affected stick construction is through the development of hockey sticks having hollow shafts. These sticks can be manufactured of any of the aforementioned materials and can be either one-piece designs, such as the Easton Synergy™, Louisville Response™, or Mission M1™ models, or they can include removable/replaceable blades and shaft extensions to vary the overall stick length. Representative hollow shaft designs include U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,875 to Easton et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,115 to Sweet, Jr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,325 to Jansen; U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,916 to Rodger; U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,553 to Rodgors; U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,306 to Selden; U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,027 to Christian et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,947 to Quigley et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,509 to Christian; U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,836 to Carroll et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,416 to Christian; U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,955 to Calapp et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,029 to Kunisaki et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,793 to Burger; U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,505 to Burger; U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,633 to Conroy; U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,697 to Sulenta; as well as U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 404,449 to Burger; 430,249 to Burger; 431,273 to Burger; and 458,329 to Clark, Jr. et al. and U.S. Patent Application Publications Nos. 2002/0065154A1 to Goldsmith et al.; and 2003/0119612A1; all of these patents, design patents and patent applications being hereby incorporated by reference to the extent not inconsistent with the present disclosure. With the development of these technologically advanced hockey sticks, suppliers have been able to charge a premium when selling these high performance hockey sticks to the public.
One drawback to the new shaft designs is that with a hollow shaft, the user has an increased potential to break the stick in the shaft as opposed to more traditional blade breakages. As the new shaft and stick designs often have a significant replacement cost associated with them, this can lead to significant warranty and service issues for suppliers was well as frustration on the part of consumers.